Chapter 72 “Where The Heart Ends, We Begin”

The rain had dissipated by morning, but a pale mist clung to Crestwood Academy as a reluctant breath, as if the campus itself was unwilling to release the storm. For once, the stillness was not stifling—it was required. A quiet form of clarity trailed after heartache, and for the Bennett twins, clarity was long past due. Claire sat on the steps outside the greenhouse, before her first class, legs drawn up to her chest, arms around her knees. The heat of the rising sun did not quite find her. She observed students in twos, in quiet laughter and casual gossip, and questioned how long it had been since she had felt that sort of ease.